As technology has gone wild in the past few years and information is embedded into everything from our soda bottles to our refrigerators and even into cavity fillings (OK I *think* I’m making that one up, but would any of us be surprised if it was true?), it’s easy to forget that just a mere few years ago, the press release was the holy grail of outbound marketing communications; it determined agendas for markets and could freeze deals, stock prices, and customer confidence by its mere issuance.

But I was speaking with a friend the other day who has over 65,000 followers on Twitter right in the midst of trying to get my own press release through final edits and onto the wire, and it started a discussion about the effects of social media and what a press release really gets you in the marketplace right now.

Given the proliferation of PR from many technology vendors, it’s easy to dismiss press releases these days; there are fewer technology press writers, so fewer publications to pick up the release.  Given how reluctant customer PR departments are to have their names used in print, the news has to be pretty big to be noticed; and even then, how can you guarantee that the people you *want* to read it actually will?  So the question in our discussion, and I think it’s a good one for marketers to consider is “is it worth more to you to reach a smaller, yet relevant audience that is following your every Tweet, or spray the infield and hope that the right people see your hard work in action?”

Now, one can make the argument that savvy marketers don’t choose between one or the other.   And while not everyone can have thousands of people following them in a community, it does highlight an important facet of marketing today, as well as the limits to traditional outbound communications.  The key here for marketers is to know that we have to think of communications in a much more integrated fashion.  It’s no longer just writers that help drive and influence opinion, but bloggers and analysts that have massive followings.  And also services like PR newswire can get any press release out into cyberspace for a fee, the point is not the press release itself, but what the press release can get you—what behavior does it influence?  Can you not put the news on your blog or preferred social media outlet and achieve the same or better results at a fraction of the time and cost?  Or if you are issuing a press release, how can you ensure you extend its reach, to make sure the right people read it, and that those people take the action you want them to?

So the next time you hear the CEO yell out “we need a press release,” stop and think about not just what that entails, but if it really helps achieve the objective you’re after.  Sometimes the best strategy is not the one that you’d expect.